Every Interaction Leaves a Trace

When people of different cultures meet, the interaction will inevitable change both parties. Every interaction makes you more knowledgeable and brings you closer to become a world citizen. In this post I will focus on the interaction between locals and tourists, their socio-cultural relations. Though we were travelling in a quite closed environment, which definitely lowered to interaction with locals to a minimum (but was necessary to successfully manage the trip), we did still have conversations and non-conversational interactions with locals. This is in accordance with Smith’s (1977) conception of ‘hosts and guests’, which assumes that tourists leave an impact on the host’s societies and cultures and vice versa. I already elaborated on some of these issues when writing about the Dead Sea, where locals in resorts don’t demand us to oblige to their tradition of covering shoulders etc. But tourists predominantly visit resorts and therefore the interaction that is taking place in such a location is not representative as the environment is not typical for the hosts. The only region that we visited in which we could feel the changes that interaction made possible was in my opinion Aqaba. In Aqaba we noticed many differences to rest-Jordan; the tax on alcohol did not exist, many people wearing shorts (including women) and more souvenir shops. Smith did not focus merely on the social impact but also the economic impact. That the interaction between guests and hosts leave a mark is easily observable thus, those very touristy regions we’ve visited such as Petra and Aqaba had a different atmosphere than off-the-beaten-path cities such as Karak. The interaction leaves a somehow interesting effect, called acculturation. Just as big (American) multinational are often accused of accelerating globalisation, so is the interaction of tourists and hosts. Values, emotions and opinions are exchanged and everyone involved gains knowledge and changes.

LLM

Smith, V.L. (1977) Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.


Locals asked me to take a picture after talking to them

Another lovely form of interaction between guests and hosts

Heritage Sites - Petra

Petra is Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction and one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, among other top attractions such as Machu Picchu or the Great Wall of China. It was undoubtedly what we were looking forward to the most, thinking back to our first plenary session. As noted in many blogs, including mine, the diminishing number of tourists coming to Jordan is economically hurting the tourist sector. However, even though Petra visitors number halved since 2010, as a reaction on the unrest in neighbouring countries, the historical and archaeological site continue to be the most important anchor in Jordan’s tourism industry. We visited Petra on our fourth day and the site truly had an impact on us all. In this post I will describe the affect and importance of heritage sites, such as Petra, and connected them to what I could observe myself. I believe that Lowenthal’s (1985) idea that heritage sites subconsciously provide “a reassuring sense of continuity” and a sense of identity is correct and definitely explains our desire to visit such sites. However, I was more interested in the conscious part, the observable. I refer to the overwhelmed reaction of my classmate, who couldn’t grasp the beauty of the monastery and the treasury. I believe that the idea of Ashworth and Tunbridge (2000) can provide an explanation. It says that heritage sites have a great importance to a unique place or location, it is contrary the process of globalisation in which everything becomes less unique but rather part of a bigger shared culture. The reaction of my classmates showed exactly what this ‘difference’ between what you usually see and Petra generates: an overwhelming feeling of excitement that left most of us slack-jawed. To end this entry, I want to bring out another thought: I’ve visited most of the Seven New World Wonder and honestly, Petra did not overwhelm me. I kept comparing it to Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat and finally I came up with the idea that on a large scale (meaning, the more other heritage or natural sites you can compare it to) the more similarities you detect and the less impressed by the site in particular you are. So maybe the idea of the homogenisation of sites is not far off. Debatable!

LLM

Lowenthal, D. (1985) The Past is a Foreign Country, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Graham, B., Ashworth, G.J. and Tunbridge, J.E. (2000) A Geography of Heritage, London: Arnold.

The Treasury, Petra